Here at Malt Whisky 100, we’ve developed two useful tasting sheets to help you get started with or improve your own tastings and record your whisky experiences.

Below are links to these two downloadable resources. One is a sheet giving you options for how the whisky appears – on the nose, on the palate and the finish. The second is a “glass sheet”. It sounds simple, but it’s really handy when you’re tasting multiple drams as it helps you to keep track of everything.

Simply click on the link and then hit “print” or use the keyboard shortcut of “ctrl” + “P” at the same time and follow the instructions. Once you’ve printed them, hit the back button to return to this page. Simples.

A final thought before we slope off to a little tasting of our own. To become (or at least appear) a consummate pro about all things whisky, take a wander through the wonderful whisky glossary that Master of Malt has put together. It will explain all those technical words you didn’t know (or couldn’t spell) and help you to grow as one of the whisky community. Check it out here:

Sukhinder Singh, Director at the Whisky Exchange, shares his top 3 whiskies under £100

Sukhinder Singh

The Whisky Exchange is a very popular place to buy whisky. It’s a specialist whisky and spirits retailer based at Vinopolis in central London and they also sell direct via their website.

Their prices are competitive, service is consistently great and their well-constructed website allows you to browse in an organic fashion. Their range is certainly enviable and helps you to learn a bit more about whisky every time you visit.

So what better person to ask for their 3 favourite whiskies under £100 than the Whisky Exchange’s Director, Sukhinder Singh, one of the most respected and well-liked people in the whisky industry.

His immediate reaction to the “top 3” question was “I wish you’d said top 10 – it’s hard to narrow it down to so few!”

First off the starting blocks was the Clynelish 17 Year Old, distilled in1995.

“Clynelish is one of my favourite distilleries in Scotland. I’ve got a big soft spot for it. The bottling that we did recently and launched at the Whisky show at the end of 2013 was a single cask Clynelish 1995, 17 year old from a sherry cask, produced by Signatory” he said.

“It’s getting harder to find single casks of it so when I found this Sherry butt, that yielded 622 bottles, I was very happy. I love the classic Clynelish character – waxy, fruity, it’s a traditional highland dram and for me, that’s something special. I also love the standard Clynelish 14 year old distiller’s bottling”.

Clynelish 17 year old tasting notes

Nose: Cooked apple with cinnamon, warm leather, and stewed plums and raisins. Floating above are lighter fruity flavours, with fresh cut Braeburns, gummi chews and tinned pineapple.Palate: Classic Clynelish wax, quickly pushed aside by spice and fruit – more apples and chews from the nose, along with plump raisins and grape skin tartness. Water brings out more sweetness, with dark black liquorice and sherbert.Finish: Fragrant wood resins, tingling cinnamon and lingering medium-sweet apples.Comment: A well-balanced Clynelish, with the classic waxy spirit character bolstered but not hidden by sherry cask spiciness.

Sukhinder waxed lyrical on the Highland Park 18 year old which retails at around the £100 mark. “The 18 year old is a classic, an amazing whisky. To be fair, I like the whole range, I like the 25 year old, the 30 year old, but for me the 18 is the benchmark for Highland Park. It’s been one of my favourites since the day it was launched.”

He talked about the recent sharp increase in price of the Highland Park 18 following a re-launch in modernised bottles and packaging and a marketing campaign to get it into the hands of consumers.

“The price increase is predominantly due to demand – it’s in the same stable as Macallan – and the price now reflects the quality” said Sukhinder.

Sukhinder’s next choice was a Lagavulin 16 year old. “It seems to get overlooked, maybe because it’s in front of you all the time” he mused. “It’s the perfect example of an Islay whisky. For the age, it’s very good value for money at around the £50 mark. Sometimes you can try a bottle that costs £100 that’s not as good. It’s often on a restaurant list; it keeps evolving with each sip and every time I come back to it, it just gets better and better. It’s a classic malt, I absolutely love it.”

Lagavulin 16 year old tasting notes:

Appearance: Deep amberNose: Lapsang Souchong and fruity sherry. A sophisticated mixture of sweeter aromas followed by lemon and white pepper notes with a roasted nutty quality.Palate: The dryness is at first offset by the sweetness of the sherry character. As the palate develops, oily, grassy, and, in particular, salty notes emerge in a long, sustained, aggressive, attack.Finish: Long and fragrantly smoky. Water brings out Indian spices (roasted cumin).

Whilst I had Sukhinder’s ear I thought: shall we do one more for luck? So we pushed on. He said:

“I’m a big fan of Glenfarclas, Longmorn, Ardbeg – one brand that is still very unknown is Glengoyne. For me it’s a whisky that’s very classic in its style. As a Highland whisky it’s very clean, very easy drinking. I like the 18 a lot. It’s in the middle – it’s from re-filled sherry casks and first fill, so it’s on the sherried side.

“It lends itself better to cooler weather – I drink it less in the summer, when the weather’s too hot, but also not when it’s bitterly cold – it’s a really good everyday dram for me.”

Glengoyne 18 year old tasting notes

Appearance: Medium gold with a rich glow.Nose: Awash with red apple, ripe melon and fresh banana. Heavenly and well rounded, it drifts into hot porridge topped with brown sugar.Palate: Full bodied, round and rich. At first macerated fruits, marzipan and walnuts; then warm spices, dry cocoa and lingering Seville marmalade.Finish: Long, warm and dry.

“Here’s another one a lot of people don’t talk about: standard very affordable malt: Aberfeldy 12. I really like that, I think it’s lovely, it’s so easy drinking, fruity, very clean, classic Speyside style. It’s a lovely introduction malt for beginners, very approachable, Aberlour is another personal favourite – going more towards the sherry style. In terms of affordability it’s fantastic: £33! A lot of people don’t know it – and it’s such a nice easy drinking whisky. It’s owned by global giant Bacardi and I think they don’t really know what they have with Aberfeldy, they’re too focussed on their white spirits. It’s a lovely clean fruity whisky.”

Aberfeldy 12 tasting notes

Colour: Full, golden yellow.Nose: Almost incense-like, heather honey with a fruity softness, notes of pineapple, toast and cereal. Syrupy, lingering on the tongue like a liqueur.Body: Full bodied.Finish: Full flavour, the perfume characteristics become more spicy, with a bitter hint of Seville oranges in a decidedly dry finish.

And you can progress from the 12 year old to the 21 year old. The 21 is a great upgrade, it’s literally the elder brother/sister of the 12 year old. It’s the same style just a lot more complex and concentrated. It’s still got the element of waxyness to it that I really like, like the Clynelish style, little bit of oak, honey, hint of sherry. I really love them both, seriously they’re both are very, very good.”

Sukhinder also gave an insight into the whisky market: “I feel that the quality of standard single malts up to the £100 mark has got a lot better in the last 2-3 years. I remember 5-10 years ago, I was finding that some of the standard malts on the market weren’t as good as they should have been.

What changed it? When they were being entered into competitions – I was doing a lot of judging in those days – there was a lot of disappointment in the standard malts. Some were really boring, and what happened was that other categories, like Japanese whisky, were blowing away Scotch whisky. They were winning everything and the Scotch industry thought: we’d better pull our socks up! A lot went away and many went back to the drawing boards.

10-12 year old whiskies today there’s very little disappointment – that’s what I personally feel. Glenlivet, Glenmoray, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Balvenie – they were good – and now they’re getting great. A lot of people are still getting in to whisky and as a whole, the industry is in a really good position.

So you’ve decided that you’re going to treat yourself to a bottle of Lagavullin 16 or Coal Ila Connoisseurs Choice or a Dalwhinnie Distiller’s Edition. Where are you going to buy it from and how can you get the best deals? There are lots of retail outlets, supermarkets and websites so we’re going to share our favourite places to buy whisky and why we like them.

The Whisky Exchange

This specialist whisky retailer has a fantastic breadth of range. You can learn a lot from browsing through their exhaustive collection and there’s a really useful sidebar that gives you suggestions of other related whiskies – particularly useful if you’re looking for something new – either for yourself or as a gift.

They’re also very competitively priced and have lots of special offers throughout the site. They give comprehensive, but not too nerdy, tasting notes and you can read (and post) comments about their products from consumers. If you’re not London-based you’ll need to buy online. You can buy single bottles and there’s no minimum order. You’ll have to pay for delivery, but at £4.95 for up to 60 bottles, why not buy several at once, or make an order with friends or colleagues. One last thought – they have a plethora of miniatures so why not add on a tiny treat or two and broaden your knowledge without burning through your whole pay cheque?

This is a specialist retailer who sells online only. They have a fantastic spectrum of whiskies as well as other wines and spirits. They have some fun and interesting gift ideas if you’re searching for that elusive top-notch present. They also offer gift vouchers which make a great present for any whisky enthusiast.

Delivery is quick and easy and they offer a flat rate charge of £4.89 for unlimited bottles to be delivered to one UK mainland address. If you’re in a hurry, take a look at their different options for speedy delivery – including before 9am the next day.

Of all the supermarkets, Waitrose is our favourite for buying whisky. Why? Because they have range, good stock levels and most of all because they have amazing special offers. Throughout the year they promote different whiskies by discounting them, sometimes by up to 30%. When compared against wine sales that may not seem much – how many times have we all seen £10 bottles of wine slashed to just £5 each?! Too many times – especially if you’ve drunk those bottles and woken up the next day realising they were just that: £5 bottles of wine.

The same is not true of the whisky market and a discount of 30% is a real discount of 30% so fill your boots, and your trolley. A bottle of single malt whisky is a terrific Christmas present and Waitrose clearly agree. The best time of year to stock up on whisky from Waitrose (especially if you like to browse a bit and perhaps try something new) is in the 8 weeks or so before Christmas when they have a very large selection of special offers, many of which are incredibly good value. And you truly can’t beat their customer service – even with a big stick!

If you’re starting out on your whisky journey or you’re trying to persuade a partner to buy something more unusual than another bottle of blended whisky then manoeuvre them further up the same Tesco aisle towards the shelves of the single malts.

As a general spirits retailer Tesco are very competitive on price. They tend to focus more on the entry-level single malts alongside mainstream spirits products. It’s a great place to look for special offers at the more reasonable end of the single malt range and pick up a Jura or a Balvenie at a decent price.

If you’re travelling, remember to check out World of Whiskies in the airport and online before you leave www.worldofwhiskies.com. They have travel retail exclusives and some very good deals including larger format bottles for the same high street price – spend the same but get a litre bottle rather than a 70cl one.

Those were our favourite whisky suppliers, but there are lots of other good places to shop so why not check out these folk too:

Malt Whisky 100 goes behind the scenes to bring you an interview with Ronnie Cox, the Global Brand Ambassador for The Glenrothes (pronounced glen-roth-ez).

The Glenrothes Select Reserve is a soft, silky Speyside single malt whisky. It has a pale golden colour with a nose of American oak, vanilla and coconut. You could also detect a touch of plums. The palate is slightly sweet with more vanilla and some orange zest, and it has a long and slightly spicy finish. It’s very good value at a retail price of around £40 from major retailers including the big supermarkets.

Ronnie Cox is an exuberant chap who oozes energy and charisma. As we chatted, we sipped a little Glenrothes and Ronnie talked about how whisky is evolving in the modern market, his desert island Glenrothes dram and how he first got in to whisky.

My father asked me when I was young, “what do you want to do?” I said I didn’t know, so he asked me “what do you really like doing?” and I said: chasing women, travelling and drinking! He said “there is no way, my son, that you will ever find a lucrative job doing that”. And it took about 10 years before he gave me a warm embrace and said, as though to a prodigal son: “welcome back to the fold you lucky fellow, you’ve found your métier in what you really wanted to do”.

Glenrothes Distillery

Do you think whisky has moved from being known as an after dinner drink?

Enormously, I mean a revolution has taken place. In the past, it was a derogatory term to be called a whisky drinker in this country – how times have changed. In the 60’s a whisky drinker was somebody who would drink rather too much; in those days each house would have one blended whisky, there was no real variety. It had become a drink for an older generation. It has now been recognised as a much more versatile drink, so whereas in the past people would have one bottle of whisky in the house, now they have three or more and it’s drunk in many more situations other than just after dinner.

A cask in the warehouse at Glenrothes Distillery

Do you have a favourite vintage of The Glenrothes and can you tell us a little about it?

There are several vintages I absolutely adore, one of them is the 1991, which is no longer, that’s what I call a ‘desert island dram’. 1991 is about as good as Glenrothes ever gets, not because it is very old, but because it delivers the character of the distillery in a beautiful balanced way…one is the spirit and one is the wood.

The older whiskies tend to carry much more of an emphasis on wood than the younger ones, and the younger ones tend to be much more of a spirit product, so that area in the middle of the pendulum swing, is the most beautiful moment for bottling. The 1991 carries the character of the Glenrothes, the vanilla, the citrus notes, the ripe fruits, spicy notes, they’re in wonderful harmony. It also has a lovely texture which delivers everything it has on the nose, it’s got a great depth to it. That’s the most telling thing – it has a wonderful long, long finish to it.

Glenrothes 1991

Given how much we know already, how much more do you think there is to understand about the effects of maturation on whisky?

We have an association with the Scotch whisky research institute. They have a collection of scientists studying the effects of wood on spirit and anything else to do with maturation. There is so much more we can still learn. There are so many different variables: the wood, the variances between hot and cold, humidity. For example, every tree will give a different colour once made into a cask

From the point of view of The Glenrothes, is the consumption of single malt increasing in the world?

In the past 15 years I have seen the number of female attendees at master classes rise from 5% to 30%. Whisky’s become a much more acceptable and interesting drink. I think social media has really helped; it’s talked about in social media and magazines. People are educating themselves, it is no longer considered too complex for the layman to understand. Prices are more realistic; when you consider the price of a blended bottle of whisky forty years ago was the equivalent of an average three days’ pay; today it’s three hours’ pay.

Single malt discovery is increasing around the world. Things like clubs, events and ambassadors, fun really, have drawn people of like minds together. For example, Brazil has the same size market as Poland in terms of single malts but has a 3 million case market for blends.

Looking at a market like Poland, it was number 35 in the world rankings in 2012, moved up the world rankings to number 31 in 2013 and doubled the sales of Scotch whisky from 11,000 cases to 22,000 cases. That’s incredible growth in one year, and if one has a look at that and projects it forward, that gets quite interesting. There are quite a lot of countries, that show a 30-40% increase over the last three or four years and it’s simply that the younger generation is discovering you can drink it almost anywhere, you don’t have to mix it any more, you can sip and enjoy it.

A’bunadh is a cask strength single malt whisky made by the Aberlour distillery in Scotland. The name of the expression “A’bunadh” is the Scottish Gaelic way of saying “of the origin”.

Rather than creating an age statement whisky, showing how long it has been in cask, A’bunadh is released in “batches” of limited size i.e. number of bottles. Each batch is unique, being married from barrels with an age range of five to twenty-five years.

A’bunadh has a classic sherry-finish as it is aged only in Spanish oak sherry butts giving it a softer, sweeter flavour than many other single malts. A’bunadh is non-chill filtered which is a process by which whisky is cooled to a temperature around 0° celsius and passed through an adsorption filter. This removes any residue that might produce cloudiness in the finished produce but is thought by some to affect the final flavour of the whisky and so is not universally employed.

I got a few different things out of the whisky on tasting (as most of us do I think) so here are my thoughts.

Colour:

Light golden

On the nose:

Sweetness and iodine at first and then the smoke hits you, not too much nicely balanced. Followed by a few dried fruits before becoming tropical, melon and bananas present. left for a few minutes the banana becomes more banoffee pie and then a little white fruit on the end all mixed in with a gentle hints of peat.

On the palate:

Smoke and peat in spades, but not so much as to unbalance the whisky, followed by sweetness and nice citrus and spice, oranges and limes rather…

Whisky used to be described in terms of regionality – highland, lowland etc. It’s much more useful to learn about whisky through flavour profiles as there are so many cross overs between different regions. Below is an adaptation of world-renowned whisky writer Dave Broom’s flavour map, originally created in conjunction with Diageo.

Click on the link below the map to hear a bit more about the four whisky flavour profiles…

You know that wine’s made from grapes. They’re grown on vines then they’re crushed, the liquid is fermented, aged for a bit and then bottled. It gets sent to the supermarket or wine shop and you pick it up from there.

But what about whisky? How’s that made? Isn’t it incredibly complicated and mysterious?

Through feedback, readers have asked for a simple description of how whisky’s made so we’ve put together a piece of show-and-tell for you – whether you’re off to a corporate event, out on a big date or just want something new to talk about click on the link below…